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Oceans and fisheries

European Union support

The European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) is one of the five European structural and investment funds (*). The EMFAF supports the EU common fisheries policy (CFP), the EU maritime policy and the EU agenda for international ocean governance and it provides support for developing innovative projects that ensure the sustainable use of aquatic and maritime resources.

As a global ocean actor and a major producer of seafood, the EU has a responsibility to protect and sustainably use the oceans and their resources. It is also in the EU's socio-economic interest to guarantee the availability of food supplies, the competitiveness of the maritime economy and the livelihood of coastal communities.

The fund helps achieve sustainable fisheries and conserve marine biological resources.

The EMFAF is programmed for the period 2021-2027 with a budget of €6.108 billion, of which €5.311 billion is provided through national programmes co-financed by the EU budget and EU countries and €797 million is provided directly by the Commission.

[*] The European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund.

 

The EMFF had six main priorities

  • Sustainable fisheries (26.26%). To strike a balance between human fishing capacity and available natural resources, to fish more selectively and to reduce unintended catches.
  • Sustainable aquaculture (19.78%). To make the sector more successful and competitive by focusing on quality, health and safety, along with eco-friendly production; and to provide consumers with high-quality, highly nutritional and trustworthy products.
  • Implementing the CFP (19.27%). To improve data collection, scientific knowledge, control and enforcement of fisheries legislation.
  • Marketing and processing (18.96%). To improve market organisation, market intelligence and consumer information in the world’s largest seafood market.
  • Employment and territorial cohesion (9.72%). To help coastal and inland fisheries and aquaculture communities gain more value for their products and diversify their economies into other maritime fields, such as tourism or direct sales.
  • Implementing the integrated maritime policy (1.17%). To improve marine knowledge, better plan activities at sea, promote cooperation in maritime surveillance and manage sea basins according to their individual needs.

The remaining 4.84% consisted of technical assistance to help Member States implement the above priorities.

The EMFAF entered into force in July 2021, so at the time of going to press, most EMFAF programmes had not yet been adopted. Thus, sufficient data is not yet available to describe the definitive allocation of EMFAF funding. This section, therefore, focuses on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), which covered the 2014-2020 period.

The EMFF did not prescribe how every cent should be spent. Instead, the EU allocated a share of the total budget to each Member State and left it to the national authorities – and local communities – to choose the projects and solutions that worked best for them.

In this way, the EMFF was supporting local initiatives aimed at rebuilding fish stocks, phasing out discards, collecting fisheries data and reducing the human impact on the marine environment. The fund was used to help Member States check that fishers, fish farmers and maritime communities correctly applied the relevant EU rules. The funds were also available for projects encouraging cross-border cooperation in maritime domains such as spatial planning and surveillance.

Although the 2014–2020 programming period is over, beneficiaries may continue to incur expenditure for subsequent reimbursement by Member States until 31 December 2023. The Commission may accept payment claims from Member States until mid 2024.

EMFF contribution – 2014-2020 programming period – Per priority
(in thousand EUR and percentage of total)

  Sustainable fisheries Sustainable aquaculture Implementation
of the CFP
Employment and territorial cohesion Marketing and processing Implementation
of the IMP
Technical assistance Total per MS % per MS
AT 33 4 103 1 400 0 1 287 0 140 6 965 0.12
BE 15 476 5 325 13 494 0 5 210 940 1 300 41 746 0.74
BG 13 397 23 138 9 826 15 792 12 217 2 325 4 125 80 824 1.43
CY 14 395 8 491 9 006 4 935 532 1 229 1 125 39 715 0.71
CZ 0 23 622 2 653 0 3 125 0 1 707 31 108 0.55
DE 51 511 67 922 60 249 20 499 8 724 2 350 8 339 219 596 3.90
DK 79 017 22 019 70 546 7 518 14 838 2 500 11 914 208 355 3.70
EE 15 203 7 547 13 962 26 282 29 886 2 263 5 824 100 970 1.79
EL 119 025 62 394 70 433 59 925 52 687 4 445 12 777 381 688 6.78
ES 286 923 170 786 154 233 106 832 313 223 5 217 52 083 1 089 301 19.34
FI 13 245 13 327 30 018 3 926 6 770 4 445 2 659 74 393 1.32
FR 121 752 127 865 123 003 20 430 167 035 4 991 22 900 587 980 10.44
HR 87 414 55 507 32 166 23 548 44 555 332 9 118 252 643 4.49
HU 1 703 24 709 2 451 0 9 196 0 351 38 412 0.68
IE 29 076 14 900 69 790 6 000 18 500 5 334 4 000 147 601 2.62
IT 187 761 77 773 102 428 42 713 90 292 4 045 32 246 537 262 9.54
LT 11 209 18 199 7 959 9 875 11 585 930 3 672 63 432 1.13
LV 40 767 20 724 10 367 21 477 36 497 2 500 7 500 139 833 2.48
NL 32 146 4 837 51 938 0 5 120 2 500 4 980 101 523 1.80
PL 160 831 162 948 23 627 79 699 69 739 2 500 31 873 6 965 0.12
PT 96 044 65 000 49 902 32 710 61 603 2 350 31 873 531 219 9.43
RO 3 767 91 052 12 942 37 428 122 518 5 194 21 115 392 485 6.97
SE 24 994 11 403 60 400 8 343 7 940 2 500 10 067 120 156 2.13
SI 2 649 2 387 3 798 5 809 4 703 4 445 5 864 22 227 0.39
SK 0 6 863 965 0 3 045 0 937 11 812 0.21
UK 70 604 21 572 97 633 13 767 24 010 4 881 10 669 243 139 4.32
Total per priority 1 478 954 1 114 423 1 085 202 547 516 1 068 227 65 792 272 696 5 632 814 100

NB: Not relevant for LU.
Source: Launchpad (cutoff: 31 December 2020).